Golf-Club Buy Plays Into O.C. Flood Control

As part of flood-control efforts, Orange County supervisors agreed Tuesday to buy the Green River Golf Club, with its two championship golf courses hugging the Santa Ana River.

Supervisors will pay $22 million for the club, located near where Orange, Riverside and San Bernardino counties meet. It is just downstream from the huge Prado Dam, which releases water into the river and floods the golf courses during heavy rains.

“The county isn’t in this to run a golf course,” said board Chairman Bill Campbell. “We’re in this because it is predictable that we will wash out at least a portion of the golf course in the future.”

The purchase will let the county bring in an outside operator and shut down the 560-acre club if necessary during dam discharges.

The club, which includes banquet facilities, was appraised for $19 million, said Herb Nakasone, county public works director. The owner, Amada Co. Ltd., a Japanese tool builder with U.S. headquarters in Buena Park, does not wish to operate the club after its sale, he said.

The county also owns a course at Mile Square Regional Park. It has partial ownership at Strawberry Farms in Irvine, River View in Santa Ana, Lake Forest Golf Center and the Newport Beach Golf Course.

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, which is raising the dam 30 feet, urged the county’s Flood Control District to buy the property, Nakasone said.

“When Prado gets done,” Nakasone said, “discharges are going to be three times as large as last year’s, and the corps is very reluctant to allow private ownership of property in the river.”

If the golf club remained in private hands, the operator could sue to prevent the releases, which could back up the dam’s water storage and cost thousands in legal fees, he said.

“We don’t want any interruptions with users of the golf course, so we’re trying to do this as smooth as possible,” Nakasone said.

The club is well-known in all three counties. It is the home course for several high schools, including El Modena High in Orange.

“I’ve played the course when there were heavy rains, and it becomes unplayable, especially right around the first hole, because of the amount of water,” said Edward Howard, athletics supervisor for Orange Unified School District.

Having the river running through it provides a bonus for golfers, who enjoy playing down fairways lined with oaks and sycamores that provide cover for squirrels, raccoons, rabbits and deer.

Prado Dam, which provides flood control and water storage for Orange County, is the downstream storage facility of the Santa Ana River flood control system that begins in the San Bernardino Mountains.